Row over gay hustings

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I suppose it wouldn’t have been deemed appropriate to treat such a party in the same way.

It might upset the mutual appreciation, backslapping love-in to allow the Greens select their own, representative.

I imagine that if Peter Tatchell has been there, it would have meant some awkward questions about why the main parties think it is acceptable to give state money to homophobic, faith schools and why marriage equality is not supported by the Tories and Labour.

And seemingly one of Stonewalls main goals is to ensure embarrassing questions don’t get put to their political bosses.

I was never seeking to be the Green Party panellist at the gay hustings. The Green Party wanted to choose its own representative. There were two openly gay Green Party general election candidates – Darren Johnson (Deptford) and Joseph Healey (Vauxhall) – who have campaigned long-time on LGBT issues and who were available to attend the hustings. They were not asked or invited. The Green Party was definitely not invited to send who they wished. It is no big deal but not the best way to organise a representative hustings.

On another point:

The Green Party will go into the General Election as the only party campaigning for full marriage and partnership equality. We are calling for civil marriages and civil partnerships to be open to both same-sex and opposite sex couples, without discrimination.

We oppose the blanket, lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood.

Greens believe that all police forces should have LGBT Liaison Officers with paid time allocated within their work schedules to tackle homophobic and transphobic hate crime.

Well said, Chester! People like Squidgy sit in anonymity behind their computer screens but do NOTHING to fight for LGBT rights NOW. Peter Tatchell DOES do something. Peter Tatchell has done A GREAT DEAL. A lot of us do a great deal more than dealing with the appalling level of ignorance of members of our own community here on these boards.

Peter wouldn’t make a point unless there was a point to be made.

For anyone who attended the Village “hustings” and was led to believe that all the parties are a much-of-a-muchness when it comes to LGBT issues, go and read the short article in the Torygraph of 16 March 2010 which betrays, and so very clearly too, the heart and soul of Tory homophobia!

Here are a couple of snippets to whet your appetites:

“We are discouraged from having opinions of our own, especially on moral or ethical matters, and certainly from expressing them. It is frowned on to be opposed to abortion; or to believe homosexual partnerships to be lacking in equivalence to marriage; or to imagine that stable family units with both a mother and a father are superior, generally, to those that lack one or the other; or to imagine that married families might last better than unmarried ones; or to have any sort of perceived privilege, whether it be through wealth, hard work, luck or simply having the right outlook on life or the right sort of parents.”

Because Tories HATE Labour’s legislation that has made it illegal for them to turn us away, for example, from double-bedrooms in hotels, Tories actually BELIEVE that the UK has become an authoritarian state!

The Torygraph article states:

“so much policy during the past 13 years, . . . has caused unnecessary restrictions to our autonomy: and, in the process, created a state that is becoming progressively more and more authoritarian, and therefore unpleasant, to live in.”

So there you have it. The proof of what is gnawing away at the HEART of Tories, way down deep below all the window-dressing that pretends “Oh, but we welcome gays and lesbians, we respect gays and lesbians as much as anybody else!”

Oh, no they bloody well don’t! The essence of the Tory mind is in the article. It is homophobic. Go read.

All genuine gay voters should read the above page from the Subday Times. Its a scarey read about Callmedave the Salesmans Polish branch of the homophobic Tory party… the Law and Justice Party. It will send shivers down your spine.

If squidgy had done 1 percent of what tatchell has done for gay rights he wouldn’t be saying that as he’d know what an impossible task it is to fight for, for so long. Tatchell is a gay hero. Squidgy is an idiot. Im sure you’ll be voting tory – wank*r. Tatchell doesn’t seek publicity for anything other than to create equality – sure i don’t agree with all his views (specially his love of islam) but he’s a good guy. Don’t retire Tatchell. We need you. We don’t need squigly.

As someone who attended the Political Hustings on the night, the biggest shock had to be be when Chris Smith from the Green Party denounced Peter Tatchell as the Right wing face of the Green party, I have to say I did n;t ever think in my lifetime i would hear Peter being described in this way!

I’ve got a lot of respect for Peter Tatchell as a campaigner for gay rights, but as a Green candidate he talks as much rubbish as the rest of his party. I suppose he’s missed out on Nick Clegg’s frequent calls for equal marriage, at http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/marriagewithoutborders among other places.

The Greens already get far more representation in the media than they’ve earned – they have zero MPs, and little chance of electing even one at the General Election. Their LGBT equality policies are admittedly good, but the Liberal Democrats have been campaigning on these matters since before their party even existed, and have actually been in a position to do something about it!

I’m sorry, but you can’t invite all the fringe parties to these things. If you invite the Greens, who are tiny, then you’d have to get UKIP and the BNP etc etc. Where would it end? The Natural Law Party, the Monster Raving Loony Party?

It depends how much of a farce you want your event to be. If you want it to be fairly serious, then stick with three parties.

I am not a Green supporter but I think if the unprofessional Village Drinks decided to take the Greens in, they should have behaved sensibly after ‘Whoever-is-Smith’ approached them by going through the party itself. How will they feel themselves if one of their staff appears on a panel at random to represent them without the organisation knowing? Shows how much rubbish they already planned with their Political-Banner partner, Stonewall.

As for the Squidiot who accuses Mr. Tatchell of doing nothing and think his retirement will be a favour… pity. Compared to you faceless-data, Tatchell is a god. He isnt seeking attention because he can get the attention without asking. I wonder how many journalists or media orgs knows your name let alone picking their phone to find out what you think on even unimportant matters like cleaning the street you live in let alone crucials like Human rights… You cant even post comments with your real name or a live link.

That’s all fine Godwyns, but I think it all rather depends on how Mr Smith represented himself, we are not privy to the details of any conversations and Village may have been under the impression that he was authorised to to represent the party (which as a prospective councillor, he may well be).

I agree with the posts on this thread that relate to Peter Tatchell being someone who is helping to make real progress for LGBT rights. At least he is up off his arse doing something about it and much respect to him for being brave enough to stand up to the people and powers that he has done so to!

I would comment on this website a lot more if it weren’t for the bitchy in fighting I see so regularly on these comments. There’s no wonder progress is so slow for us given that all we seem to be able to do is argue amongst ourselves and point score against each other. If I were an outsider looking in I would wonder if we were all fighting for the same cause!

Progress can only be made with a collective effort. I doubt very much that Peter Tatchell see’s himself as a ‘god’ or even a figure head for the lgbt movement. He is one part of a slow moving machine that needs a lot more energy and will to get it out of first gear. Let’s all pull together people, it’s the only way. Just look at how fragmented political parties are because they can’t form cohesive teams with clear strategies.

The saddening thing is, despite us not being able to pull together the single biggest rising threat to our freedoms, namely organised religion are pulling together and are seeing results!

The Green Party are the “only” party taht promotes full Equality and Human Rights in the spirit of the Universal Decleration Of Human Rights—granted the Lib-Dems are starting to get this side of things together to

New Labour are an insult to Human Rights—people say they have done this and taht for LGBT rights but that is fictional–they have used the pink vote and grabbed the pink pound–they have supported the religious fascists right—-they ahve not sought that the Seretaria Of the Commonwealth publicly denounces Afriacn Countrys on Homophobia and abuse of human rights—they have abused the rights of Asylum seekers under the Geneva Convention–blah blah blah the list can go on–

The Tories well they ahve never done a lot anyway–and there supporting of fascists in the EU says it all–

As for Stonewall–one of the biggest “instutional transphobic” garb all the money going grabers,

Peter has done SO much for gay rights it’s untrue. To call for his retirement shows how little you know, Squidgy.

For Peter to be described as representing the right-wing of our party too, is utter tripe. Peter is a member of Green Left, the left-wing economic movement in our party. Peter’s social policies, are absolutely the polar opposite of right-wing too, something this idiot candidate would have known had he ever heard Peter speak.

Above all else, Peter is a gracious and wonderful human being, and I’ve had the pleasure to meet him, and protest with him, and chat with him many times. He was absolutely fantastic speaking at our Green Party conference this year. And he certainly is NOT a self-publicist. Just because he speaks out against injustices, and against crap like this hustings, where Village was clearly too scared to invite a real Green Party candidate like Joseph or Darren because our party would show the Lib Lab Con up on gay and straight equality, does not mean he is self-publicising.

Whoever the person is that is standing in Tower Hamlets, he clearly does not deserve to be in our Party for such outrageous, defamatory and hurtful remarks.

Adam, please post on these threads more. We need your sane voice here. There is a regular core of posters but there are thousands who only read. They need to hear YOUR viewpoint.

Re. electioneering and hustings, The Guardian’s report today on the unmasking of Call-Me-Dave’s actual ignorance of LGBT concerns is worth reading.

In particular, Ben Bradshaw’s observation that:

“[Cameron has] talked a good talk on some of these issues but his voting record hasn’t been very good. He’s learned a script, but when he’s actually scrutinised and forgets the script, he doesn’t have the fundamental core belief to support him in his argument.”

Posh public-school boy toff, “Call-Me-Dave”, has been caught out and revealed for what he is.

Folks, it will now be necessary for us to be even MORE RESISTANT to Tory electioneering twaddle, because after this disaster Call-Me-Dave will have gone away kicking his own ars* and we can be sure that he has already given his LGBT stooges the job of whipping up clever answers to all the questions that Gay Times put to him . . . and he’ll be back very soon to peddle them with all the “sincerity” of the PR/salesman that he is.

Remember: used-car salesmen or brand-new Jaguar salesmen, all of them will nod their heads and tell you SH*TE in order to make a sale.

Don’t vote Lib Dem! they are just as dangerous as the Tories (NIck Clegg announced two weeks back that he admired thatcher and that his party was more thatcherite than the tories (fun times in a hung Parliament)).

Labour are not far off the indictment that the Liberals and Tories are all facade and no substance.

Green is the only sensible option, esp. given our policies on real equality for the LBGT community and the straight community.